How to quit swearing in sports Wayne Rooney

Wayne Rooney is arguably the most famous soccer player we Americans know about. He’s a man that plays and lives hard having been linked to prostitution use and a problem with swearing. It turns out his swearing has gotten him in hot water.

Swearing by professional athletes seems to be a skill learned while coming up through the ranks, but seldom appreciated by most fans. It happens in football, baseball, hockey and even the olympics.

Wayne’s swearing had definite reprecussions as he’s now been suspended and dropped by Coca Cola as spokesperson for their Coke Zero drink. Coke did wish him well, though:

We mutually agreed that we would not renew our relationship. We wish Wayne well in his career.

Understand why you’re swearing: The first step is to realize you have a swearing problem and then think about why you’re doing it. Most of us swear for effect, but some have the swear words ingrained into their vocabulary. Know what your trigger points are for swearing. For Wayne Rooney it seems he swears when excited.

Change your swearing behavior: For Wayne this isn’t an option since he’s paid millions of dollars to get to the point of swearing, but for the rest of us it is pretty easy to catch ourselves when we’re about to start the swear word. At this point pick another word to substitute for your swear.

Ask others to point out your swearing: Sometimes you swear without knowing it, so ask those around you to alert you when you slip and swear.

Penalize yourself when you swear: There is no positive way to penalize yourself, but you can make someone richer. Each time you’re caught swearing give a specific person or charity a dollar. Have that dollar on you at all times and pay it immediately. The embarrassment will help.

What are the effects of swearing? For Wayne it was a suspension and about a million dollars a year. For the rest of us, though, it usually leads to the perception that we’re bad sports or we’re easy to anger. You don’t need that in your competitive environment.